Mobile day care center shut down for lacking heat, hot water

(Press-Register/Mary Hattler)A Step Ahead #3, at 3055 Spring Hill Ave. in Mobile, was ordered closed Nov. 17 after health department inspectors found there was no hot water or heat in the building that also houses a private school.MOBILE, Ala. -- The Mobile County Health Department last week closed a day care whose owner has had at least two other local child care centers shut down since 2002.

A Step Ahead #3, at 3055 Spring Hill Ave. in Mobile, was ordered closed Nov. 17 after health department inspectors found there was no hot water or heat in the building that also houses a private school.

Deborah Stokes, who operates the day care and Alpha and Omega Children's Ministries, said last week that she had decided to close, but was keeping the center open for as long as possible to serve low-income families.

Saying "no child was endangered," Stokes said she was out of town when health inspectors issued the official violation notice.

"She had no heat in the building and no hot water in order to maintain proper hygiene," said Alice Rollins, who directs inspections for the Mobile County Health Department. "Our rules state you have to maintain a certain temperature in the classroom. It was cold."

Two health inspectors responded to a Nov. 16 complaint that there had been no hot water since Nov. 3, according to paperwork.

"She had to call the parents to come and get the kids," Rollins said.

Stokes said 20 children enrolled at the day care were being referred to another center. A sign on the front of the building said that children "0-2 ½" were accepted there.

"This is a ministry," Stokes said. "It's sad for the children."

The reason there was no hot water, Stokes said, was because the building's owner had an unpaid gas bill that hadn't been settled for several months.

"It's very sad that someone would put children at risk and not put their health and safety first," said Dr. Bernard Eichold, public health officer for the Mobile County Health Department. "It's troubling to me."

Beginning in 2008, the Mobile County Health Department began inspecting all day cares in the county, whether or not they are licensed by Alabama's Department of Human Resources.

About 40 percent of Alabama's 2,000 day cares are directed by churches or faith groups that lie outside the reach of the state DHR rules and can choose not to be licensed if they wish.

Stokes previously operated a Semmes day care that was closed by the Mobile County Health Department in 2006 for various health and fire code violations.

In 2003, Stokes plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment and was ordered by a judge not to work in child care for two years under the terms of her probation.

Stokes was charged after Saraland police accused her of running a day care in unsafe conditions. The facility's sprinkler system was not working, power outlets did not have covers, and the breaker box was accessible to children if they got on the tables, according to previous reports.

"I'm a Christian; I didn't want to sue anybody," Stokes said in a 2006 interview with the Press-Register. "I did not have the money to fight them. I didn't have the money to keep going to court."

When the probation was over, Stokes opened the new center, Alpha and Omega Children's Ministries in Semmes, that was later shut down.